Volume 12, 2012

The Fisherman's Daughter

Susan Supley

I was charmed by this child,
my granddaughter’s chum.
In a factual way, she told me
about her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
the pain of her treatment, the chemo she
thinks made her grow and how her
Grandma had died young of cancer.
Showed me a bracelet of Celtic design
her father wove for her from fishing line,
the year she was first diagnosed.
Now in remission at thirteen, the sun
plays on her curly red hair as she dives
laughing, into the pool with her friend,
plucks the bright plastic fish from
the painted blue bottom of its sea.